The news here, as "Game Change" author Mark Halperin said on MSNBC, is that Edwards lied first about the affair and then about his paternity -- and enrolled several aides in the deception -- so that he could earn a spot as a speaker at the 2008 Democratic Convention, which nominated Barack Obama, and then could lobby Obama for a shot at the vice presidency.

Some people call it Potomac fever, that moment of illness when your morals sink to your ambitions.